Programs Blog

Author: Taylor Finn, A Watch and Pomona College

Ship’s Log

Sunday 28 April, 2024

Noon Position (Lat and Long): 22° 17.069’ S x 148° 40.346’W

Ship Heading (degrees): hove to

Ship Speed (knots): hove to

Taffrail Log (nm): 3467 nautical miles

Weather / Wind / Sail Plan (from 1300 Watch Change): SE wind force 4

Description of location: Inner Islands, French Polynesia

For context on the group photo where we are all clipped in on deck. The sea
state was rather *excited* so safety lines were rigged on deck. This photo
shows us clipped in during class on a wet and windy day. Some were more
excited than others. I personally had a blast. I LOVE THE OCEAN

Narrative for the Day:

My goal for this blog post was to write it post dawn watch in the weird hazy
state of delusion we all tend to find ourselves in but naturally that didn’t
happen – I took a very long nap after having Murph and Megan’s delish
blueberry muffins for breakfast. Instead I am taking advantage of my Sunday
afternoon off with no class. You might be wondering what we could possibly
get up to on the Bobby C on our time off. First is to celebrate holidays out
of order. We have celebrated the following holidays in this order:
Christmas, Halloween, the 4th of July (also Kate and Meg the mates bday),
and today double Valentine’s day (2/28).

Onto today: I woke up from my nap to lovely valentine’s letters from friends
onboard, already a great way to restart my day since it started this morning
at 1 am on dawn watch. These lovely letters were not the first valentine’s
surprise we stumbled up to onboard today. During our routine deck walk
before watch, A watch was left with a lovely surprise from C watch. Most
lines on deck were coiled into balantine coils which for those who don’t
know, takes a whole lot of effort.

When on dawn watch and the previous watch pulls a little prank, the natural
sequence of events is to retaliate. Rest assured we got done what needed to
get done in lab (processing evening watch’s tow, 100 count, and copepod ID)
but also came up with a fantastic fool proof plan to get C watchers back.
The balantine coils were left untouched all morning until C watch was back
on deck to clean it all up (hehe). The next order of business was to hide
some shoes. Bri, my wonderful and brilliant watch mate, came up with the
idea to take only one shoe from each C watcher and hide it. I don’t
personally know the thought process that went behind this idea but we were
all in. Bri proceeded to take one shoe from each person and arrange it into
a heart in the control room. Amazing. To counter the loss of shoes the rest
of us on a watch created a song list to sing to C watchers – each student
was going to receive an individualized valentine’s song gram. Bri, Hannah,
Emily (aka smelly) and I walked around for about an hour with serving spoons
singing snippets of songs such as I’m Yours, Crazy in Love, Just the Way You
Are, 1000 Years, Can’t Help Falling in Love, Boyfriend, You Belong With Me,
and Love Story.

Earlier in the morning as I napped, B watch deployed the CTD thousands of
meters into the ocean with a pantyhose full of Styrofoam cups we all
decorated. Don’t fret, they all came back up to the surface so no littering
occurring but they did come back up compacted as tiny little cups! More
funky boativities.

Days like today keep spirits high on the Bobby C as we all grapple with the
fact that we will be land dwellers again very soon. As time continues to
move in a strange way none of us understand here at sea, I think back to
times this past week that fill me with joy. Here is another list because we
love lists here at sea.

–          Shooting the starts with a sextant during star frenzy a few
twilights ago and plotting a cel fix that was 20 minutes off from our gps
fix at the same time! Shout out Sofia for calculating twilight and what
stars to shoot and Megan for plotting out fix and shooting starts with me!
Shout out to Davi for kicking me out of the galley and telling me to shoot
the stars – I love u Davi.

–          Watching the moon rise almost every evening with my 37 closest
friends

–          Being at the helm during a squall when gusts reached 42 knots and
seeing how the impressive  swells moved the ship.

–          Being JWO (junior watch officer) and calling two gybes for the
sake of science (we love science!)

–          Going aloft with Megan, JD, and Emily and watching one of my
favorite sunsets to date while also watching an approaching squall.

–          Watching the sunset these past few days on the quarter deck while
music is playing and people are singing.

The Bobby C has treated us well so far and as we approach Tahiti these last
few days are filled with extra silliness, laughter, soaking up the sun,
hugs, music, and time spent reflecting on our time at sea. After a month at
sea sailing towards tropical waters, you begin to sense changes around you.
All of a sudden the air is a bit more humid and warm, the sea takes on a
different color and the sunsets seem familiar, like the tropical sunset that
remind me of home.

Notes to home:

I can’t wait to hear everyone’s voices in a few days as we approach land.

Paola, your hiking pants that I never got back to you have been my favorite
pair of pants onboard so THANK YOU and I miss u sm!! Mandando un beso y
abrazo.

Mama papa connor y marley, los extrano tantisimo. Se me olvido felicitarlos
(a mama y papa) en su aniversario el 5 de abril (oopsies) pero gracias por
todo el amor que nos dan y todas las oportunidades que nos han dado a mi y a
connor. Los amo eternamente. Connor espero que la hayas pasado brutal en
Portugal.

A mis nenas en PR: ahora que estamos en aguas tropicales pienso en todos los
atardeceres que hemos visto en ocean. Shan – todos los dias de verano que
pasamos en ocean. Carl – las caminatas cuando las dos necesitamos un break.
Gabs – esos dias que pasamos jugando beach tennis. Clau – nuestras caminatas
de catch up. Las amo tanto.

Pals from Claremont: I keep thinking of when we will be reunited in our
favorite southern California city in the inland empire (live love
Claremont). I’m excited to hear of everyone’s adventures on and off campus.
I love you all and can’t wait to chit chat in approx five days (I think ? I
have lost sense of time at sea oopsies)

Talia: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!!!!!! I might be a day late because of time
changes but I hope u accept my happy birthday message. I love you so much
and thank you for all your support pre program. It feels so special to have
this connection with the bobby c with you. I can’t wait to celebrate when we
reunite (whenever that may be L) good luck with the end of the semester,
hang in the pal, I’ll talk to you soon. Love u buddy.

Once again a special shout out to Sarah for hopefully having registered for
my classes. I keep thinking that maybe I didn’t set up duo for you so I
actually don’t know if you registered for me lol. Oh well. Nothing that
can’t wait a few days. I hope Geneva is everything you have wanted and more.
Keep slaying at CERN and doing cool physics stuff. LOVE U

I’m now off to take a nap before evening watch because as much as I love
hanging out and having fun I need to have some sleep under my belt to stay
awake from the hours of 7 pm to 1 am. I know this doesn’t sound like a
difficult task but you will have to trust me when I say it is in fact the
most difficult task.

Love everyone reading endlessly. MWUAH

Xoxo

Tay  J <3

Taylor Finn, A Watch and Pomona College

https://sea.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Apr28_groupclippedinsmall.jpg